Re: Mac users are feeling our pain :)

["Peter de Vroomen" <peterv[at][spamblock]jaytown[dot]com>]

> >Yes, for exactly the same reasons I do not do business with Microsoft and
> >still program in BASIC. Microsoft dumped BASIC in favor of C++,
>
> Dunno about that -- after all, Microsoft still sells Visual Basic.  I'm
> amazed Microsoft hasn't dumped Basic yet ......

No, it's not BASIC what they sell these days. It's either a crippled mix of
old-style BASIC and Pascal (VB1-VB6) or C++ with BASIC keywords (VB.NET)! :)

Heck, it doesn't even have line numbers! BASIC without line numbers is just
some other, more serious, programming language in disguise! :)

> otoh Basic was the first language interpreter which Bill Gates wrote -
> the first version was for the Mits Altair 8080.  Seems like Gates still
> can't let go of Basic...

Hmm. Read this: http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/gateswhine.html

Quote: "Almost a year ago, Paul Allen and myself, expecting the hobby market
to expand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC."

If he wrote the first version of MITS Altair BASIC, then why did he need to
hire Monte Davidoff? It was either a team effort, or Bill didn't lay a
finger on BASIC himself. It probably was a team effort, I'll give Bill that.

But I wasn't exactly serious in my post anyway :).

PeterV